Allegiant, Part II
by levines
Summary: WARNING: SPOILERS. What if Tris had let Caleb die for her? What if the bureau wasn't all the evil left in the world? What if Tris hadn't died? What if, what if, what if? /Alternate ending to Allegiant.
1. Chapter Fifty: Tris

A/N: Allegiant did not end how I wanted it to. To me, it was unfinished. This is how I would have wrapped up the book, and the choice been in my hands. :) This picks up in Chapter 50 (hence the chapter name) from Tris's point of view and will continue from there. You'll notice I pulled some dialogue from the book, and that was intentional, since I felt it was more authentic that way. Enjoy!

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Caleb didn't make it past David.

I could tell from the screams coming down the hallway that something was going terribly wrong. I tried to focus on the never-ending stream of men with guns coming toward me, but all I could do was shoot blankly; my mind in overdrive trying to process what to do next. I kept hoping that the bullets I was shooting were actually hitting someone. What a terrible thing to hope for.

Somehow, the stream of men with guns slowed, and I was able to scramble down the hallway, towards Caleb. My stomach was twisting into nots, thinking about Caleb lying on the floor. Caleb, not moving or breathing or talking or having that sly smile he used to get when we were both being mischievous as children. Before Erudite. Before Dauntless. Before this… _revolution_.

I feel like throwing up.

As I approached the shattered entrance to the Weapons Lab, I tried to be quiet and quick, refusing to let myself look at Caleb, who was strewn across the floor, a pool of blood gathering around him. As if his life didn't matter. I could hear David muttering to himself a few feet in front of me, not paying attention to the fact that there could be others coming after him. Coming _for_ him.

As I slunk into the shadows of the chamber, in one of the corners of the lab that had rubble piled up high so I could hide, I begin scanning the lab for the box Matthew had so clearly described to me. Black box, silver keypad, marked with a strip of blue tape…

My eyes secured the box a few feet to the left of me, almost parallel to David. My heart pounding in my chest as I quickly revised my options in my mind. There was no chance I could make it to the box without him seeing me, and shooting me instantly. Maybe I could stall him just enough to get to the box and deploy the memory serum while he was talking… though in my mind I knew the attempt was too feeble, not planned out enough. The voices in the hallway leading to the chamber were getting louder, and I knew I had to make up my mind quickly.

My body was reacting before my mind could catch up, and without blinking, without thinking, I was standing. When I speak, my voice is stronger, more certain than I thought it could be. "David," I say, moving away from the crowded rubble in the corner.

David spun around his wheelchair as fast as he could, his Pistol staring right at me. He smiled, albeit sadly, upon looking at me.

"Beatrice," He began, "I had a feeling you would be the one to so _selflessly_ give up your life for the others. It seems I was wrong about you." He motions toward Caleb when he spits out the word 'selflessly', no doubt referring to my failed Abnegation roots. I felt my blood starting to boil, anger bubbling within me and threatening to spill over the sides of my body if I'm not careful. I merely shrug, thinking that if I act like Caleb doesn't matter, maybe David will see past my weakness and perhaps still think we're on the same side. I knew this was a stretch.

"What are you doing here?" I respond, feeling slightly dizzy and heavy. Perhaps the death serum hasn't completely evaporated yet.

I feel my gun occupying the small space between my waistband and back, and for a sliver of a moment, feel hope. Before I realize that I had emptied it on all others before entering the chamber. I feel a wave of defeat wash over me, hoping David can't see it reflected on my face.

"I knew something was going on," David says. "You've been running around with genetically damaged people all week, Tris, did you think I wouldn't notice?" He shakes his head. "And then your friend Cara was caught trying to manipulate the lights, but she very wisely knocked herself out before she could tell us anything. So I came here, just in case. I'm sad to say I'm not surprised to see you."

"You came here alone?" I say. It's the only thing I can think of in response. "Not very smart, are you?"

His bright eyes squint a little. "Well, you see, I have death serum resistance and a weapon, and you have no way to fight me. There's no way you can steal four virus devices while I have you at gunpoint. I'm afraid you've come all this way for no reason, and it will be at the expense of your life. You may have just narrowly avoided the death serum, but I am going to kill you in its place. I'm sure you understand – officially we don't allow capital punishment, but I can't have you surviving this."

He thinks I'm here to steal the weapons that will reset the experiments, not deploy one of them. Of course he does.

I try to guard my expression, though I'm sure it's still slack. I try to keep the black box Matthew described in my peripheral vision, and shift towards it slowly while he's talking, hoping he won't notice. He doesn't.

"I know what you did," I say. I start to move left again, hoping that the accusation will distract him. "I know you designed the attack simulation. I know you're responsible for my parents' death – for my _mother's_ death. I know."

"I am not responsible for her death!" David says, the words bursting from him, too loud and too sudden. "I _told_ her what was coming just before the attack began, so she had enough time to escort her loved ones to a safe house. If she had stayed put, she would have lived. But she was a foolish woman who didn't understand making sacrifices for the greater good, and it _killed_ her!"

I frown at him. There's something about his reaction – about the glassiness of his eyes - something that he mumbled when Nita shot him with the fear serum – something about _her_.

"Did you love her?" I ask. "All those years she was sending you correspondence…the reason you never wanted her to stay there…the reason you told her you wouldn't read her updates anymore, after she married my father…"

David sits still, like a statue, like a man of stone.

"I did," he says quietly. "But that time is past."

That must be why he welcomed me into his circle of trust, why he gave me so many opportunities. Because I am a piece of her, wearing her hair and speaking with her voice. Because he has spent his life grasping at her and coming up with nothing.

I hear footsteps in the hallway outside, and know the soldiers are coming soon. I pray Tobias will somehow be among them, or I know I won't make it out of here – with David pointing his gun at me – alive.

"My mother wasn't a fool," I say. "She just understood something you didn't. That it's not sacrifice if it's someone else's life you're giving away, it's just evil."

I take another step towards the black box. "She taught me all about real sacrifice. That it should be done with love, not misplaced disgust for another person's genetics. That it should be done from necessity, not without exhausting all other options. That it should be done for people who need your strength because they don't have enough of their own. That's why I need to stop you from 'sacrificing' all those people and their memories. Why I need to rid the world of you once and for all. I didn't come here to steal anything, David."

I twist and lunge toward the device, praying I'm faster than David's hands. The gun goes off, but nothing hurts, so I assume he missed.

I can still hear Caleb repeating the code for Matthew. With a quaking hand I type in the numbers on the keypad.

The gun goes off again.

This time he hit me. I know he has. Pain races through my body and black edges on my vision, but I hear Caleb's voice speaking. _The green button_.

I start to fall, hoping that if I'm under something, anything, David won't be able to shoot again. I slam my hand into the keypad on my way down. A light turns on behind the green button.

I hear a beep, and a churning sound.

I slide to the floor and see David slumped over in his chair. I've done it. I've won.

I feel a thread tugging at me, beckoning me towards blackness but I know, I just know, that even if I go towards it, I can survive this.

I sigh, comfortably, and everything goes black.


	2. Chapter Fifty-One: Tobias

"Where is everyone?" Amar asks.

We walk through the abandoned security checkpoint without stopping. On the other side, I see Cara. The side of her face is badly bruised, and there's a bandage on her head, but that's not what concerns me. What concerns me is the troubled look on her face.

"What is it?" I say.

Cara shakes her head.

"Where's Tris?" I ask.

"I'm sorry, Tobias."

"Sorry about what?" Christina says roughly. "Tell us what _happened_!"

"Tris went into the Weapons Lab after Caleb. He didn't make it…David was waiting there for us, as if he knew…she was shot, Tobias. Badly."

Most of the time I can tell when people are lying, and this must be a lie, because Tris has to be alive, somewhere. Her eyes bright and her cheeks flushed and her small body full of power and strength. Even if she was shot, Tris is still alive. She wouldn't leave me here alone.

"Where is she?" Christina asks, sounding more urgent.

Cara's eyes well up with tears.

It's then that I realize: Of course Tris would go into the Weapons Lab after Caleb to ensure the memory serum worked.

Of course she would.

But that's not my only concern, with the memory serum in full effect – we have no Doctors, no Nurses, no one to help us. And we've left the faction-filled world behind us.

My palms feel sweaty as my heart race doubles, triples, as I try to breathe.

"Cara, where is she?" I demand, more forcefully. If Tris is where I think she is, we don't have much time.

"She's still in the Weapons Lab," Cara chokes out, and she's hardly finished her sentence before I'm sprinting, Christina right on my heels.

When we find her, she's cold, limp, and doesn't look like the same Tris I've come to know and love. I don't remember the journey from the entrance to the Weapons Lab, really, just a few smeared images and workers wandering around, looking lost.

She lies on the floor, and for a moment, I think she's just sleeping, and when I touch her, she will wake up and smile at me and press a kiss to my mouth. But when I do touch her she is cold. We're running out of time.

I gather her in my arms like I have so many times before, her breathing shallow and ragged. There's blood everywhere – and I can't tell where it's coming from. Her neck? Her stomach? Her leg? All of the above?

It's as if Christina reads my mind and she quickly begins scanning Tris' body for the bullet. Tris doesn't move, and I have a gut-feeling in my stomach that it's not a good sign. Even if we _were_ quick enough to get help, would she ever wake up?

My stomach churns at the thought, and I have to suppress the urge to throw up.

"Christina, listen," I say. "We have to get her to Erudite, that's the only way she'll survive this. She needs a Doctor."

Christina nods, though her face looks concerned.

"We can have Amar take us back," She hesitates a minute. "Four, what do we do if they won't treat her? Not everyone knows what happened. To them, we're just Dauntless."

Christina speaks the fear that's been tugging at the back of my mind since I heard Tris was shot.

"We're just going to have to hope they do." I say.

When we reach Amar, he looks dumb-founded.

"What happened? What did you guys do?" Amar speaks as though he's in charge of me again, how it was when we were in Dauntless. When I looked up to him, trained to be like him…respected him.

"We didn't have a choice." I say. "We weren't going to let them destroy the factions as if their lives and memories meant nothing."

"So you just go and do the same thing to them they were going to do to your family?" He retorts hotly.

My mouth twitches, and I shift Tris' body in my arms, for how thin she is, she weighs more than what you would expect. Clearly stronger and more muscular now that she's been running with Dauntless.

"Listen, we picked the lesser of two evils." I say, Tris' words ringing in my ear. "It may not have been right, but it was the only choice we had. David was going to destroy everything. Now, if you want to debate about the ethics of our faction system, and how my whole life has been an _experiment_ , you can do it on our way to Erudite."

"Erudite?" Amar looks confused. "Why on Earth would I help _you_ -"

My blood is boiling, and I'm losing patience. Tris doesn't have much time, if any, and we're wasting precious breaths arguing over semantics.

"If you want more blood on your hands, fine, stay here." I interrupt him. "But I'm not going to argue about this while Tris _dies_ in my arms."

That word tastes sour coming out of my mouth. And I notice that for the first time, it seems to have registered to Amar that Tris is in my arms. Not moving. Hardly breathing.

After a few moments of silence, he just responds with a curt, "Fine," and we're heading towards the truck – trying to get back to Erudite as soon as we can.

"Hang in there, Tris." I murmur softly, pushing some hair away from her face.

Christina overhears me and looks back at me, offering a small smile. I can see in her eyes that she's not sure what to feel – hope, loss, fear, anger?

I feel all of the above.


End file.
